Saving Normal by Allen Frances

I just finished the third book in Stieg Larson's Millienium series: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. My thoughts are at Goodreads, like I mentioned earlier, but spoiler, it was amazing.

I also wanted to mention my primary thoughts on Saving Normal. I picked it up because... well, my goal is to be a psychiatrist, and I thought it was convenient to read. I read the first 6 pages, then it sat on an end table until it was due... and it had a hold on it. So rather than read the whole book like most reviewers do, let's do something fun and get my first impression (because first impressions are always accurate).

For one thing, I found it preachy. This guy is a psychiatrist saying all the rotten things that psychiatrists do. Not so entertaining or enlightening. Another thing is that he seemed to be shutting down idea after idea when defining normal. I can only surmise that his goal was to present something he thought was fantastic, but who can tell. (Oh right, the readers... Whatever).

Overall, I became frustrated with his highly critical writing, so I just gave up. I'm ok with that and won't be finishing it in the foreseeable future. Feel free to read it and disagree with me (or tell me the bullet points so I can sound smart). Until next time, happy reading!

Update on Blog

I've decided that my scarce postings should be even scarcer. This blog was primarily started to keep my literary thoughts in a secure, albeit public, space. I have recently discovered goodreads.com through Facebook, so any review I do will now be there. There are some things that I will continue to post here, however. Any book reviews done here will be fiction that I think are overlooked, like Brothers, and nonfiction books like Blood Sweat and Tea and The Checklist Manifesto.

This decision is based on two reasons:
1. It's time consuming to write reviews, so I figure I should write reviews you guys can't find on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
2. The most viewed posts are those for nonfiction, so I want to continue doing what is wanted.

I'm sure I haven't devastated anyone by this decision, but if I have, you can always check on my reading status at Goodreads.com.

My Summer Reading

I have read a total of four books this summer (it's technically still summer)... I know. Pathetic, right? But for some reason, I just haven't had the urge to read a lot. It could be the stress of applying to jobs and medical school, or it could be a residue of my college "leisure-reading-less" mindset. Regardless of the reason (**cough, cough** medical school **cough**), the fact remains that only four books were read.

Near the end of June, I finished reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. I had a tough time finishing it because the writing was pretty dense. I will admit that it could have been from the translation, but I'm not going to learn Italian to see. It was also challenging to finish because my interest took a sinusoidal path throughout the book, even to the very end. It was a very difficult read, and although I probably didn't get all the subtitles of  the book had to offer, I doubt I will read it again.

Near the end of July, I finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Micheal Chabon which was awesome! It was honestly the best book I've read in a while. It had a bunch of different aspects that could appeal to a wide range of people. The story follows two Jewish cousins as they create a comic book empire. When I put it like this, it reminds me of Brothers, but it's a lot better. Of the books I've read in the past year, this is the one I encourage everyone to read.
  
Now onto the book I just finished. It was an interesting read called The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. He is a general surgeon and a professor at Harvard Medical School. While I know this is not a book for everyone, I hope I can convince some of my readers to pick it up. Gawande is promoting the use of simple checklists in operating rooms and beyond to limit complications caused by forgetfulness. The problems he often mentions are infections and repeat surgeries. He makes a terrific case that I hope others will try to institute. I have to mention that I don't typically read nonfiction, but this was superbly written. The writing was succinct and kept me fascinated. If you want to include a bit of medical nonfiction into your repertoire, I suggest reading this or one of his other books.

Blood, Sweat, and Tea Review

I started reading Blood, Sweat, and Tea by Tom Reynolds based a strange chain of events. You should know by now that I am a fan of Game of Thrones, so I was looking at the IMDb page of Richard Madden, the actor of Robb Stark, and saw that he played in a series called Sirens in 2011. From there, I learned that this show was based off of the book this post is about. This is not my typical way of finding books to read, but it didn't turn out too badly.

This book is a collection of blog posts here (I think his original blog was removed, but you can still read it all there). Tom is an EMT and writes about his daily activities. It is an extremely interesting topic and I really enjoyed reading it, but it's very different from a novel. Good novels hold your attention as the plot progresses, but this book lacked a plot (because let's face it, life doesn't have a plot) so it was hard to spend a solid few hours reading it. I can see see myself picking it up when I have that urge to read a couple of paragraphs about some drunks or broken leg, but not spend a day absorbed in it.This doesn't make it a bad book, just different, and it should be read differently.

To summarize, I would recommend buying this book (so you can read snippets over a long time) rather than borrowing it, but you should definitely read it (or at least his blog... it's very cool).

Since I haven't had a post for awhile, I'll let you know what I am reading now. As my "dedicated" reader knows, I have The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, and Dune by Frank Herbert ready to read. I hope to finish them by the end of the month, so be sure to check back!

Dance with Dragons and Season 3

I finished reading A Dance with Dragons last month and was very sorry that I did. (Is everyone feeling betrayed and vengeful? good... good) It is NOT because it was bad, but because now I have nothing to look forward to this summer. (ah, I tricked you all!) There is, of course, season three of the HBO Game of Thrones series premiering at the end of the month, but that won't get me through another year!

     This book's plot is happening concurrently with the previous book, but from different character's perspectives. This book focuses on what is happening outside or at the fringes of Westeros. Some notable characters are Jon Snow, Daenerys, and Bran. There are a few Cersei chapters at the end, but predominantly it's non-central Westeros.  It's unfair that I mention these characters, since all of the characters' stories are awesome, but everyone has a right to their favorites and these are mine.
     As in all of George R. R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice books, characters are introduced and other killed off. I don't know why, but death always comes as a surprise. Without ruining anything, (well not intentionally) I want to tell you the most surprising (but not really) death... very complex emotions here. There was a character that I was really rooting for; he was kind and honorable (a deadly combination in the world of George R. R. Martin) and wounded. As his chapter ended and I read another's chapter, I was hoping against hope that it "was only a scratch" so to speak, but alas... he died.... and I cried. (Don't judge me! I get very attached to characters!) Now I know that I shouldn't get too emotionally involved with honorable characters, but I know I will do it again.
     As always, Martin has an enticing book for all the right reasons. Highly captivating with suspenseful cliff-hangers in addition to a rich, immersible plot. If you have read any of my blog, then you know how much I recommend this series. If you haven't i am very curious why you are even reading this...
     I would urge Martin to hurry up with the sixth book, but after writing my review for Mockingjay, I think I can wait awhile.

Now just a quick mention about season 3... I am SUPER excited to start watching and have been watching everything their youtube channel as been spitting out. I think this may be the best one yet (fingers crossed). 

Mockingjay review

     I recently finished Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins and came away more satisfied than when reading Catching Fire, but still very disappointing in comparison the first in the series.
     After the 75th Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta are seperated as Peeta goes to the Capital and Katniss is delivered to the 13th District to be used as a pawn in the uprising. As you begin to read, you notice right away that Katniss is not psychologically there and the book can get very confusing at times. It could be that Collins intentionally did this to give us an idea of Katniss's state of mind, but even if this is the case, it only becomes a little easier to digest. Another thought I had was Collins recreating herself in Katniss as they are both trying to figure out life's great mysteries: such as "What has my life become?" In Collins's case, I think we can safely say that she has no idea.
     Overall, this book had a great plot, but was poorly written. It seems as though Collins was in a huge rush to finish the last two in the series after her first book became so popular. I was reading some reviews after I finished it and noticed that the final scene in the capital was meant to be like a 76th Hunger Games. Looking back, I could kinda see how it fit, but again, it was written terribly.
     I may have have been able to swallow all of the other trash that Collins decided to spit out, but what really made me grind my teeth was Katniss herself. She... I don't know what she is, but I don't think she was a good main character. She isn't emotionally strong and definitely doesn't seem intelligent. I think my main problem with her is that she never changes. Throughout the three books, she is always a dumb, self-minded girl. I can't even write this without anger causing me to clench my jaw into a very uncomfortable position. I can't believe it... an emotionless, fictional character causes this much emotion from me. Maybe Collins isn't as bad of a writer as I said. 
     I have a hope the she will rewrite these last two books, because I know she can write a coherent, captivating story from The Hunger Games. I don't think this will happen, so my next hope is that next three movies will be better than the last two books. (oh, I don't know how many of you know, but Mockingjay is being split into two movies... a rather ridiculous trend I think.)

Comparing Terrarium Books

My fascination with terrariums began with Pintrest, which is the mother of all DIY-projects-that-YWD (you won't do) sites (... you won't find this definition in urban dictionary, kids). So in a flurry of interest, I gathered all of the terrarium books I could get my hands on. In all, there were 7 that have been published between 1970 and 2011 which I read and compared. Let's start with telling everyone how to build a terrarium, and then I will review each book.

     The first thing to do when creating a terrarium masterpiece is find a glass container and clean it. Then lay some pebbles one the bottom and sprinkle some charcoal bits on top to reduce the earthy smell later. Then place a filter layer. the easiest thing to use is peat moss, but there are synthetic materials that you can use as well. The next step is the soil. It is suggested to use a very light soil without fertilizers. Finally put your plants in, spray some water in there, and top the container. That's it!

     Maintenance is very simple: if there is a lot of condensation, leave the lid open for a few hours; if no condensation is present, spray some water inside. Typically, you need to water it like this once a month or so, but keep an eye on it since it will vary. 

Now on to the reviews! At the end of this section, I will have a chart comparing my ratings.

Tiny World Terrarium: A Step-by-Step Guide to Easily Contained Life

      by Michelle Inciarrano and Katy Maslow

This was a very comprehensive book on how to form and manage a terrarium while also giving some neat examples. It was very easy to follow and had cool pictures. The only con I found was that it heavily focused on the mosses and said little about other plants suitable for terrariums. I would have preferred a balanced book, but the gorgeous photos make it hard to turn away.


Terrarium Craft: Create 50 Magical, Miniature Worlds
      by Amy Aiello and Kate Bryant
Overall, this book had some valuable information, but their primary goal was to show how to design a terrarium. They have 50 such design examples (I guess  you could get that from the title of the book). A redeeming aspect of the book were the novel (to me) ideas like moss balls and air plants. I feel that this would only be a good supplementary book after you have a better grasp on terrariums, but is not a good beginner's book.

The Complete Book of Terrarium Gardening
     by Jack Kramer
The name says it all. This is one of the more comprehensive books that I looked through. It has great information on types of plants to use, detailed information on how to create a terrarium, and most importantly, what to do when your terrarium fails from death, disease, or insects. Overall, a great book to have. It is a shame that it is out of print, though.

The Terrarium Book
     by Charles Evans
Similar to Kramer's nook, this is comprehensive in many facets. This book makes plant selection pretty easy by listing common plants for each light intensity and temperature range. It dedicates a lot of pages to plant selection, which is nice because you want the plants to stay alive for a long time. The maintenance chapter was also very useful and had a bit more detail on how to fix problems (i.e. bugs and disease) than other books that I read. This was an awesome find and is on par with Kramer's book above. Although an out of print book, it is an excellent book to have. 

The World of Terriums
     by Charles Wilson
This book contains a lot of valuable beginner information. I really liked the index of plants in the back of the book. It had things like growth habit (flowering, grass-like, etc.), temperature, and light requirements that were all neatly arranged in a grid. They were all in their scientific names so it was difficult to recognize them, but after finding one that fits your desired profile, just give it a quick Google search and you should be set. There was also a neat propagation chapter. I already knew how to propagate plants, but if you are a real beginner in the gardening arts, it is very handy to have everything in one book. Overall, it's very awesome. It is beginning to be a pattern that the books I really like are out of print, as this one is.

The New Terrarium
     by Tovah Martin and Kindra Clineff

The book started out wonderfully by describing some other types of containers to use such as cold frames (like a shadowbox). The book continues to exceed my expectations (since most of the modern terrarium books were more or less decorating books). The authors have a deep respect and love for terrariums and the plants they put in them. They do have a decorating section, but it is very brief and by no means the focus of the book. What is nice is that there are a few step by step projects in the back of the book to get you started. If you don't want to go through the hassle of getting older books, then I suggest getting this one. It is not as comprehensive as Wilson's or Kramer's, but it's darn close.

Gardens in Glass Containers
     by Robert Baur
Unlike the earlier books I talked about, this is the only one that isn't strictly about terrariums.
The bulk of the book is still about terrariums, but it also includes aquatic plants and dried arrangements. Baur is unique in that he discusses how to prepare any type of terrarium (i.e. bottles, tanks, brandy glasses, etc.) which may not be necessary, but it you were wondering, there is a section devoted to it.Most of the information regarding terrariums is similar to the other old books, so it's a pretty good choice, but just isn't my top choice.

Now on to the ratings! There are 7 aspects I thought were important (quality of the information on containers, plants, type of soil, drainage techniques, and plant maintenance as well as the quality of the pictures and how easy it is to read). Each rating is out of 5.

I hope this will help some people decide on what book to get. Especially considering the time I put into this. Let me know in the comments if you want me to review any other books and don't forget to send me some pictures of your finished terrariums!

Fear Nothing review

     Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz is a thriller about Chris Snow, a young man with XP. This disease prevents him from going outside during the day and being around bright lights. The reader often overlooks his restrictions because Chris is a strong character that gets caught up in a huge mess in his small town. Taking place over a couple of days, many horrific things continue to happen to Chris and he finds out things that he later wished to have left alone (very vague, yeah?).
     This book was very suspenseful, as are most of Koontz's works, and had a really engrossing plot. I had kind of ruined a bit of the story for myself by reading the sequel first, Seize the Night, but in my defense, it was not clearly labelled. It had been a few years since I read the second one, so not much was ruined, but I remembered things as I read the book. Overall, I don't think it mattered much so if you did the same, go ahead and read the first one second.
     Although in this book it fit, one thing that irritates me about Koontz's more recent novels is his incessant inclusion of dogs. I know he loves his retrievers and all, but good gravy(!) I'm sick of him preaching about how awesome dogs are. To be clear, the dog in this book was well placed and had some purpose. If this is your first Dean Koontz book, you will not be bothered by the dogs at all (or if you have a similar passion for dogs), but trust me when I say the more books you read, the more you will shake the book in frustration and wish it were Koontz's shoulders when you read how soulful a dumb dog's eyes appear.
     Enough of that rant...
     This novel also has some sci-fi lurking in it, and a touch of mystery, but it is mainly a thriller or suspense. I would definitely read this book again and urge you to read it too. If not this one, another of Koontz's earlier, dog-less books like Strangers or Odd Thomas.

Brothers by Yu Hua

     Brothers is the first book I read that has been translated from Mandarin. It seems like the book was translated very well, but I thought that the story line was different from many of the Western books I read. In general, it was similar to other books, but I detected a strong importance of family image that are absent from Western literature. There were also subtle differences that I just couldn't pinpoint.
     As the title suggests, Brothers tells of the lives of two brother (...well, half-brothers), Baldy Li and Song Gang, starting from their traumatic childhood to their vastly different adulthood. The book is both both funny and serious with deeply emotional moments. I honestly have no concept of the historical accuracy of the book, but the Cultural Revolution scenes seem at least plausible. This book piqued my interest in Chinese modern history, since I knew virtually nothing, so the book encouraged me to gain a little new information.
     I really enjoyed reading the book, even though it took me until my winter break to finish it. It really broadened my horizon as to the types of books I am willing to read. I was pretty open to new genres, time periods, and language before reading the book, but that didn't mean I wasn't hesitant. Even for this book, I was skeptical to pick it up, but I am glad I did.
     I understand that a 700ish page Chinese book does not sound appealing to many of you, but I ask that you give it a shot and you may find that it just the refresher you need.

Summer Reading Catch-up

Unfortunatly, I forgot to post reviews on my summer books sooner and now have only a vague sense of my enjoyment while reading. However, it will not deter me from telling everyone my opinions because, dagummit, it's a blogger's right!

Ahem... So the first book I forgot to post a review for was The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larson. I am sure there are many critical reviews out there, so I will be brief. If you a) liked the first book, b) like crime/mystery/suspense or a combination of the three, or c) trust my judgement, then you will like this book. I definitely did. I enjoyed it so much that it is probably only one of a very short list of books I would read again.

The second book is Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Again, there are many reviews out there, so I will just say that it is graphic and violent, but awesome. If you loved the idea of the Hunger Games, but hated it's execution, this is the book for you. In a quick summary, it is about a class of Japanese middle-schoolers that are chosen to kill off each other on a vacated island. The movie was good, but did not meet my high expectations. If you only plan to watch the movie or read the book, read the book.

Then there is Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. It was very interesting, maybe a little more so than the first one. I did notice that her writing style is pretty simplistic and was probably never meant for an adult audience. My suggestion is that if you thought The Hunger Games was mediocre, then skip this one. If you loved it, you will really like the second one. I have heard that the third one is the worst in the trilogy, so I am hesitant to read it, but I already purchased it, so I will eventually read and write about it.

I think that's it! I am currently reading Brothers by Yu Hua so look for that review in the next year or so (I kid, I kid). Also, I have checked out a bunch of terrarium books so you can look for that review soon as well. 

Feast for Crows and Space Odyssies

     The time is ripe again for the posting of more book reviews. I have been very busy this summer - more so than last summer - so my reading has suffered, but I have still have many reviews that I need to write.






     The first is the easiest: A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin. It is easy, because there is no more I can say than what's in my previous reviews regarding the Song of Fire and Ice series. The series is great. This book had not a single weakness that I could see. The characters were superbly crafted and continuously honed and the plot is immersible and outstandingly realistic. I, again, urge anyone reading this blog to READ THIS SERIES! That's it for my Game of Thrones rant.

     I interestingly decided to read some real sci-fi this summer, and the book series I chose was 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clark. Although I was expecting an unrealistic portrayal of space travel, I was fortunately wrong. I was amazed (no... I mean literally stunned) by the realism that Clark used in this novel. The storyline had some slow points, but most books do so I can't hold that against it, but it was overall quite well done. I would not recommend this series to those that are entirely uninterested in sci-fi, but I strongly encourage those that have looked mouth-agape at the star-lit sky. (sometimes, I think I should be a poet. What!? I could totally be a good poet.)

   2010: Odyssey Two was slightly worse, in my opinion (but then again, whose opinion would I really be telling you?). The plot moved even more slowly, and things were changed around to be a sequel to the movie rather than the book (because there were differences apparently). This still had the same realism and made me very interested in Europa (did you it is covered by an ocean?! crazy...). My suggestion is that if you already read the first one, you might as well read the second, but I wouldn't go out of your way to get it. I hope the next two in the series are as good as the first one.

Wonderstruck Review

     Unexpectedly, I read Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick today. I saw the book at the library, and became fascinated by it... especially after I learned that the author also wrote the book that the movie Hugo was based on (The Invention of Hugo Cabret). I liked the movie, so I figured why not read one of his books. It is perhaps the most interesting book I have read in a long time. There are two stories separated by fifty years that eventually intersect in a peculiar way. The real kicker is that one story is told in just pictures and the other one is told the traditional way... you know, words. I had not intended to read the entire book today, but after I read about 100 pages in pretty much no time, I realized that the 620 pages would be cake to read. I literally just finished it (and I am writing a review already?! I must be ill...) after just about 2 hours of reading. Awesome isn't it? So if you have a couple of hours to spend, I would recommend this easy, but interesting read.

     One story is told by Ben, who is desperately trying to search for his father after his mother dies. The other story is shown through the eyes of Rose, who is running away from a unsatisfactory life. Each are from two different parts of the country, but come together in a bizarre, but not completely unexpected, way. I felt myself feeling for the characters and submerging myself into their stories. Because of its conciseness, originality, cohesion, and deep emotional impact, I loved it. This book has actually made me interested in Selznick, so you may be seeing more reviews of his work in the future.

Happy Reading!

Storm of Swords Review

      As usual, Martin has written another amazing book. Also unchanging is my reason for reading this one at the current time: so the show doesn't ruin anything. As mentioned from by previous blog, there are parts in the 2nd season that doesn't officially occur until the third book. On the positive side, I am far enough ahead that I won't have to read the fourth book for awhile, but on the negative side, I am addicted to the series and can't wait that long to read the fourth book. I am hoping to read it this summer, but I am also applying to medical schools and taking the MCAT and a bunch of other things so it is a wait-and-see kind of thing. 
     Alright, to the book... Martin is an amazing writer and if you haven't read him yet, you should. Even if it not part of the Song of Fire and Ice series (although you have to read that too!). What I find truly exhilarating about this book is that there are so many HUGE twists and cliffhangers. Of course there is still a lot of gore, sex, and ... characters. There never seems to be any less characters, even if they die, Martin makes sure to put one or two in their place. That is a slight annoyance, but there are so many things happening at once that is becomes a necessity. There is only so much that I can say about the plot before it gives something away either from this book or the first two books. I guess I can tell you some of my favorite characters. To me, the most interesting characters are Bran,  Daenerys , Tyrion, and Arya. They are and/or were awesome characters. That reminds me of an awesome saying I heard about George R. R. Martin recently: "The first rule of GRRM is never get attached." Very apt I would say.
     The rating of this will be high, and I am kind of feeling bad because I haven't read any "bad" books so it seems like I rate all of the ones I read highly. This is not the case; it is usually just that I pre-screen books before I read them so I don't waste any of my valuable time. Hopefully this persuades some people (*cough cough* this means YOU readers) to read this!

Give me some feedback! It is lonely at the computer ;)

The Hunger Games

     As I (probably) mentioned in a previous post, my elder cousin recommended the Hunger Games series to me this past Christmas. I had not intended on reading the series until the summer when I have a little more time, but then my friends informed me that we were seeing The Hunger Games movie the next day. If you know me at all, you wouldn't be surprised to know that I dropped everything I was doing and went to reading the book before I saw the movie. I had literally read for about 8 hours total (of course this was off and on. I mean ... I have to eat you know!!) and was a mere chapter until I finished it, and then I had to leave for the movie. I was a little frsutrated, but I got through the main points, so it wasn't a catastrophe.

     In the book/movie, there is a future government controlling North America, and there are the (you guessed it) Hunger Games as punishment for the revolution that occurred about 75 years or so (judging form how many Hunger Games that have been). In these games, two teenagers from each district (one girl and one boy ranging in age from 12-18) are offered as tributes to fight to the death for the amusement of the rest of their country. It is a very dark plot, and kind of reminds me of the Pendragon book The Quillian Games, but Hunger Games is much more mature. The main characters are form District 12 and the two tributes are Peeta and Katniss. There is nice development between them throughout the book/movie as well as their attitudes of the government. You will just have to read them to find out (or I GUESS you could watch the movie, but what fun is that??)

     Since at this time in the past (or is it the present O.o), I had not finished the book, I will rate the movie followed by the book. I loved how no major things were changed in the adaptation, but was just a little concerned about some of the stuff that they left out. Unfortunately, I can't even be too upset with them about that, because the movie was already treading on the "too-long-to -sit-through" movie at 2 hours and 20 minutes. I think the only complaints that I can really make is the shaky camera (I absolutely hate that kind of filming. HATE IT I say!) and the romance that they added in. I thought that it was really cheesy (and I think it was meant to be) and if I hadn't read the book (or at least most of it), then I would have thought that Katniss liked Peeta (sorry if it spoiled anything, but I doubt it did). The director could have made the act on Katniss's part much more prominent, but instead left doubts in the audience's mind; making us think "well, maybe she IS in love with Peeta." It's all a bunch of hulabaloo. I guess overall, I have to rate the movie as a 8.5/10. Pretty solid movie, but as an adaptaion, the score drops to about 7.

     The book was fantastic! Many twists and very good writing style. I don't even know what to say. When a book is good, you shouldn't have to explain it's greatness.

     Oh, as I am sure all of you have noticed, there have been a lot of Hunger Games related things occuring out there on the web. SO I would like to take this oppurtunity to share something I found on tosh.O's blog:

I though that this was awesome!

Bacon TEA!? oh and some books or something...

     So I haven’t written a blog in literally months, but I was drinking my bacon tea from Twinings (yes it actually tastes like bacon… by far the strangest tea I have ever had) and listening to Zooey in the band She & I (I love Zooey Deschanel!!!) and decided it was time to write a blog. I had intended to tell you all about the books I read over winter break (pretty much the entirety of December), but I don’t think it would be fair to rate them now since it would not be accurate. I will however tell you a little about them and then I will look to the future.

     The first book I read was the second Game of Thrones book: A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin. It, of course, was amazing. If you started the series, don’t stop… ever… I am actually planning on reading the third book over Spring break in preparation of the new series (Funny story about that: I watched the trailer and saw Rob have some girl, and I thought the writers were just trying to mess with the book. When I asked my boss, he said it was real… from the third book. Sooo, guess what I will be doing for an entire week? That’s right! Reading 1000 pages!).

     After A Clash of Kings, I read the next two Dexter books. They were getting more and more different from the show, which is disappointing for the show because the books were so good. The only problem about the third book was that there was some fantasy bits thrown in there (monsters and the like) that I thought would have been better left out. It was the same thing when I was reading I am Not a Serial Killer. It would have been a better novel without the science fiction.

     That wraps up my winter reading, so let’s get to the future readings. I recently purchased the first two books in the Hunger Games trilogy upon the high praise from my cousin (she is an adult, so yes… adults can enjoy the books too :P). You can expect that sometime this summer…. Maybe when the movie comes to DVD :/ but eventually nonetheless. I also have The Girl Who Played with Fire on my “To Read” list. Again, probably the summer. The only two that may be expected sooner are A Storm of Swords (Game of Thrones #3) and the nonfiction book I am currently reading: Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein. I am not a huge fan of nonfiction, but this was an awesome book thus far and can’t wait to share it with y’all. Until next time, get reading.

As always, any book suggestions are always welcome!

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman

At the end of the last school year, I began reading the graphic novel The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Interestingly enough, I was started on this long series by a Facebook post with a quote from the book. I doubt that she knew what it was from, but online, the reviews were hot so I decided to start it for myself. Now, I had options as to how I wanted to read it and I decided to start on the 4 volume set with about 800 GIANT pages per book. (This was called the Absolute Sandman). The thing was seriously about 10-15 pounds (it was a whopper!). Regardless, I read the first volume between April and the beginning of June, 2011 and I recently finished the second volume this weekend.

First off, let's get the plot, shall we? The basics are simply that there are entities (gods I guess) that exist and the main ones are all from the same family (this is used loosely). The main-main characters are Dream (aka Morpheus) and his sister Death (yes Death is a girl). It is all about his "life." The story begins in a relatively modern world (1990's if my memory serves me well), but eventually goes all over the place in time. That's the gist, but the plot is much more complex than I am making it.

I am no fan of graphic novels (but I have managed to read a few), but this one was strangely captivating (probably due to some major adult content). Did that just make me sound like a pervert? hmm. What I meant to say was that the other graphic novels I read were very childish and Gaiman created graphic novel for a mature audience. (That sounds much better... let's go with the second). Although the plots to the separate stories were good, I found it may have been better if Gaiman had created a temporally correct progression. Another thing I wished he would have done differently is to exclude some of his mild nudity and slightly perverse minor characters. If I were I psychiatrist, I would wonder about this Neil fella. Regardless of all the little details that put me off, I would still suggest at least the first volume to everyone (everyone that wants to be blown away by pictorial awesomeness).

Happy Reading!

From A Buick 8 by Stephen King

          From a Buick 8 is a tale of a Buick Roadmaster that just isn’t… quite right. There is no motor and has a steering wheel that is too big. Not to mention that it doesn’t get dirty or scratched. If it’s scratched, it will heal over a couple of days. When it is found after the mysterious owner disappeared while ordering gas at a station, the local police in a small Pennsylvania town take it and keep it for over twenty years. Over those years, the car (if you can call it that) has done some pretty inexplicable things. As King puts it, it has abortions in which things from another world, dimension, or whatever comes here through the Buick’s trunk. But it is not just a one-way deal. Things from this world can go to the other world too. There is one policeman who takes a keen (almost unhealthy) interest in the Buick and all of its peculiarities: Curt Wilcox. When he dies in a drunk driving incident, his son Ned grieves by going to the police station and helping out by cleaning windows and things like that. It is by doing this that he discovers the Buick in a shed and is told its story by his dad’s companions.

         This book, which has an interesting plot, was incredibly boring. There were so few exciting parts, that I really considered putting this back on the shelf and forgetting all about it. But being me, I trucked on through it and was almost compensated at the end with the most interesting part of the entire book. I can’t ruin the ending for you all, but I can say the book can and probably should have been simplified to about 100 to 200 pages and it may have passed as a good book. Although the book itself didn’t grab my attention as I would have liked, one can’t ignore King’s terrific writing style. It kind of pains me to do this, but I rate this book as a 4 out of 10. Sorry Stephen, but you can and have done better.

Wizards of Mars review

I finished Wizards of Mars by Diane Duane a couple of days ago and decided to do the review before I forgot half of the plot (as in some unnamed reviews that I had done). It should be mentioned that this is the ninth book of Diane Duane’s Young Wizard series, which began with So You Want to Be a Wizard. I had read the first one way back when I was a young boy of 12 (about 2003). I had just started reading the Harry Potter series maybe a year or two before so I was hooked on fantasy books at the time (well fine… I am STILL hooked on fantasy books). Anywho, it is imperative that you read the entire series in order to understand the book. It was a few years since I read the previous book, Wizards at War, and I was utterly confused for the first two chapters until things started coming back to me. I was really considering re-reading the entire series, but if I did that, I wouldn’t even get this book read this summer.

                In this book, Kit finally sees if there is/was life on Mars. As we all know, Kit Rodriguez was a Mars fanatic for the last few books, so it just figures that Duane would do this eventually. There was just enough teenage drama to make me slightly nauseous and wish I had left the series alone. I also found myself embarrassed for the characters as Nita told aliens that they were “hooking up”… as if the aliens should know what the flip that means. But I digress, once one gets past the fact that this book was intended for young adults (or even the 12 year old from 8 years ago), it was a very good book. I found myself wanting to read the rest of the book in one night (about 300 pages… but I didn’t want to stay up too late so I left it be). I hope that Duane’s next book in the series aims its focus to the older readers that grew up reading her books. I would love her immensely if she did. :)

Update: I found out that the tenth book in the series is called Games Wizards Play. It's about a game to determine which young wizard on earth will get a internship-ish thing with the planetary wizard. I read the description and I get the feeling that it's going to have the same flaws as the previous one. I guess we'll see (hopefully not in another 5 years like the wait for the last one was).

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

The overall plot of Best Served Cold is of this woman, Monza, who loses everything, almost including her life. After she is carefully looked after by an old man, she runs away and seeks revenge on those that have taken everything from her. She hires the best killers to aid her in her quest, never really believing that she would succeed. It wasn’t until after I read the book (actually it was just a few seconds ago) that I learned that this is a stand-alone novel following Abercrombie’s First Law series. I am usually not one to just read a book in the middle of a series, but it can definitely be read alone with no knowledge of the other books.

This is the first book I read of Abercrombie’s, and I thought his overall writing style was good. This book in particular was well written.  In the beginning, we see Monza as a heartless person. It isn’t until the end of the book that we see that she has been a victim her entire life. I am not much for reading about war and gore and swearing (which there is a lot of in this book) but somehow I ended up enjoying the book. I am not a fan of  gore so if it would skip the battle scenes, I think it would have captured my interest a little more.

"The Grass is Singing" and "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" Reviews

Everyone has seen or heard about the hit show on Showtime called Dexter (and if you haven’t, WATCH IT NOW; this blog will still be here), and I'm sure you loved it as much as I did. It is about a serial killer hero that kills only bad guys but a double life as a blood splatter analyst for Miami Metro Homicide. Very succinct, but very accurate description I think.  When I heard that the show was based on books by Jeff Lindsay, I was literally jumping with joy. I actually found out when I got the second book for Christmas last year (apparently the book store employees had no idea which book was the first in the series). From there, I ordered the rest of the series earlier this year and just read the first one,  Darkly Dreaming Dexter, this summer.
 I adored the book. Lindsay was hilarious at just the right moments and literally took my breath away at the end. One thing that I really liked about the franchise (so to speak) is that the writers of the show didn’t just copy the book. The ending of the book and the end of the first season are immensely different, so that was a shocker for me. I thought the book was a little short though. I know it is a series, but I had hoped that the book would end with the end of season 1, but it seems as though this wasn’t the case. I don’t know what the next book has in store, but I really want to read it. I should never have gotten so far in my reading; then I could be reading it right now! 

                The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing is about a murder of a white woman in Rhodesia when segregation was still the norm. After discussing a little about the murder, the story leads us to the beginning of the victim’s life. We as readers are slowly taken down the road of insanity as the women loses more of her mind with each passing heat-filled day. (Not unlike the abnormal heat wave that I am experiencing in Ohio… well, maybe not as bad, but it’s still hot.) The story was told extraordinarily well. I was kind of dragging myself to read it because it didn't seem very interesting to me, but after the initial confusion, I ate the book up. I was truly amazed at the feeling that Lessing had put into the story.

                Be on the lookout for the review of the book I am currently reading, Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. It may take a few months to write, but I will get to. Have faith!